When teenagers express interest in working and earning money (yay!), they are usually advised to babysit, cut grass or walk dogs. But there are SO many other ways for a teen to make money doing things he loves, and nurturing his unique talents. That’s why I’m sharing this list with you today.
Some of these jobs can also be done by adolescents and “tweens.” And thanks to You Tube, your son or daughter can learn any number of simple and marketable skills with online tutorials (examples: kid’s hair cuts and repairing bikes).
1- Gopher/Personal Assistant: Offer to run errands for someone else. A service like this is especially useful to people that are unable to leave their home for some reason. Local businesses also hire “gophers” part-time to do any number of tasks. For instance, law offices need documents mailed and picked up almost on a daily basis. I have a friend that is paid to accompany an elderly lady while she goes shopping or keeps appointments. This lady needs help getting around, paying and carrying things. Your child may need a drivers license for this job.
2- Typing: It’s easy to improve your typing speed, and it’s very possible that your teen is already proficient. Put this skill to use by typing copy for local businesses and professionals. Schools and teachers may also pay a helper to type worksheets, memos or school bulletins. Rates are usually negotiated per word.
3- Computer Guru: One of the best skills a young adult has going for him these days is technological know-how. It might be hard to believe, but there are still a lot of people out there that have techno-fear or just hate fooling with a computer. Teens can be hired to help others sell on Ebay, teach them how to use a smart phone, set up a new desktop computer, start a free website or blog, or just be available whenever computer help is needed. I’m currently employed by a local woodworker because he has very little computer knowledge, and has difficulty even checking his email sometimes.
4- Consignment Seller: Everyone has something they’d like to sell or get rid of, but few have the time it takes to photograph and list on the right venues. Your teen can easily start a consignment business by selling items for other people, and keeping a percentage of the sale as commission. All you need for this job is a camera, a computer and a simple contract for clients to sign. Your teen needs to know how to search sites like Ebay, Craigslist, Amazon Marketplace and other venues for current market values, and also how to accurately describe the condition.
5- Proofreading: If your teen is all about the details, he can go to work as a proofreading. Work can be found both locally and online. Make some calls to the local newspaper and send emails to prospective publishing sites.
6- Tutoring: This is not as daunting as it sounds. Tutoring can be as simple as helping the homeschooling mother down the street bring her 3rd grader up to speed in math. The best way to go about landing this job is for your teen to decide what he enjoys and excels at in school and then decide which grade levels he can comfortably mentor in. Don’t limit it to academics, either. Teens can share their athletic, artistic, dance and musical skills, too. I pay my 12-year-old son, Joseph, a small amount each week to teach Tae Kwon Do to his younger brother. Post flyers on Facebook and Craigslist and keep rates lower than professional tutors in the area.
7- Seasonal Yard and Home Maintenance: Why limit yourself to grass cutting. Most homes need care year-round, and with so many two-income households, basic tasks are often left undone. Teens can wash windows, rake leaves, shovel snow, mulch, prune, clean gutters, paint fences and remove brush and debris.
8- Farm/Food Jobs: Pull the tassels off corn. Pick apples. De-bone fish. Harvest lavender. See what’s available in your local area, depending on the crops and products being produced.
9- Home Baking: There are other ways to make money besides bake sales. Make a batch of muffins and send it to work with dad so he can sell to co-workers. Offer to bake and decorate cakes or cupcakes for birthdays and baby showers. Bake casseroles and freezer meals, then package and sell to busy families.
10- Road Work/Construction: By law, teens can safely tackle certain construction or road jobs. Some examples include directing traffic through and around work sites, painting, landscaping and planting, masonry work and carpentry that doesn’t involve power tools.
11- Delivering Papers or Flyers: Ever found a printed advertisement under your windshield wipers? Someone was paid to put it there. Teens can deliver a lot of things besides newspapers. Businesses also pay individuals to hold signs at busy intersections when a big sale is going on.
12- Political Activism: Depending on age and interest, your teenager might be interested in a paid political internship. Local campaigns may also hire part-timers for mailing flyers, phone campaigns or website work.
13- Photography: Teenagers love to take pictures! For those with a good eye and some technical savvy, photography can be a real money-maker. And it’s not just limited to portraits and family photos. My local newspaper pays for quality pictures of local events. Businesses may pay for good pictures to post on their website of shop exteriors and interiors. Photo documentation is also in demand by museums, historians and scientists.
14- Entering Contests: This might seem like an odd way to money, but lots of people do it very successfully. If your son or daughter has a particular talent, there are thousands of contests going on right now that attract artists, writers, photographers, video gurus, musicians and more. Prizes vary from cash to gift cards to merchandise. Places to search: Google, Facebook, Twitter, your local newspaper, magazines in your teen’s area of interest and local schools.
15- Writing: There are a lot of freelance writing gigs for teenagers. Whether it’s guest posting for a themed or young adult focused blog or writing copy for product descriptions on a retail site, it’s pretty easy to hop online and look for opportunities. Just to get you started, here is a list of blogs that pay up to $100 (or more) for quality posts.
16- Retail Jobs: Retail stores aren’t just limited to cashiers and sales people. My niece once had a job decorating the store window in an antique shop. Other ideas include gift-wrapping during the holidays, designing displays and dressing mannequins, organizing, stocking and accounting. Bonus: your teenager might score some employee discounts!
Note: For some jobs listed here, you’ll need to check and see if there are age restrictions before getting started. The Department of Labor is one place you can check the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) guidelines.
In the comments below, share your outside-the-box ideas for young adults to make extra money!
I’ve always thought (here in Phoenix, where every yard has sprinklers, and the heads break ALL the time), that the perfect teen job would be to repair broken sprinkler heads. It’s an easy skill to learn, you could just do your own neighborhood, so you could bike or walk there easily. So many people have no clue how to repair a broken sprinkler head, but do you know how hard it is to get someone to come out and repair such a small thing??
Knowing how to repair something that’s broken is a skill I wish more people had. So many machines and devices are thrown away when they break, and it creates such waste. I agree it would be great for a teen to learn how to fix the sprinkler heads, and put up flyers in the area stating that fact. ~Anne
1) You have a teenager!!! 😛 2) Great list for teens as well as other entrepreneurs. I’d throw “write an ebook” in there under writing. Also, as I was helping dad clean out some storage, I had another idea:
Scanning photos. Lots of people have boxes of family photos that they want digital, but don’t have the time to scan. There are online services that will do this, but sending off all of your cherished memories is scary. Advertise at storage facilities, online, friends, family, etc. that you will pick up boxes of photos, scan them, and provide a storage drive full of photos and the unharmed photos in their original state. With a decent scanner and some research into the best/fastest way to do this, I’d bet an industrious teenager could earn a fair amount- and provide an important service helping people preserve family memories for generations.
Now why in the world would you throw “write an ebook” in there? 😉 The photo scanning service is great, too! I actually have the opposite problem and would love to pay an enterprising young teen to develop my digital photos and catalog them in albums. Nothing beats a real book for keeping and sharing memories. ~Anne
What a fabulous list of jobs! I think this post should be shared with teens everywhere!